Norvic Philatelics

Following on from the Great
British
Railways, issued 19 August 2010, and the England and Scotland
miniature sheets and stamp booklets, this is the third of a series of
Miniature Sheets that illustrates steam locomotives in use in each of
the home countries. as Royal Mail move across the Irish Sea for Classic
Locomotives of Northern Ireland.

* The designs and captions were provided by Royal Mail and brought much
critical discussion on our
blog entry for this issue. The general conclusion is
that the train on the 1st class stamp "is not shown in County Donegal
but emerging from one of the tunnels between Downhill and
Castlerock, County Londonderry. The land rising in the distance, across
the sea, is part of Inishowen, County Donegal." One writer
suggested that "Royal Mail have made the classic geographical error and
confused Northern Ireland (6 counties) with the Province of Ulster (9
counties - Donegal being one of the extra 3)." In discussion about
whether the line actually crossed the border, John points out "Perhaps
we shouldn't say that the railway crossed the border but rather the
border crossed the railway (it was there first).".

Further background: The
locomotive stock of the Northern Counties Committee (NCC) of the
London Midland & Scottish Railway was combined into the UTA in
1949, not being part of the 1948 nationalisation. The
locomotive Thomas Somerset was named after the Chairman of the NCC Board
of Directors.

Postmark sponsors seem to have similar problems of identity. The
Strabane postmark (12876) shows the arms of the County Donegal Joint
Railway Committee. Strabane is a border town with Co Donegal being
across the river Foyle. The CDJRC (set up in 1906) did run lines
into Strabane and did operate the line to Derry, although that was owned
by the Midland Railway Northern Counties Committee.

Technical details:
Working in collaboration with railway expert Professor Colin Divall of the
National Railway Museum, and Northern Irish railway expert Norman
Johnston, Brian Delaney of Delaney Design Consultants, trawled through
thousands of photographs to find these period photos of steam locomotives
in Northern Ireland. The sheet is printed by Cartor Security
Printing in lithography. Dimensions: 179mm x 74mm, with all over
phosphor. The 41 x 30mm stamps are perf 14.5 x 14. The booklet
is printed by Walsall Security Printers in gravure.

All stamp and postmark images are Royal Mail copyright 2013.

Products available - we are not stocking these except the booklet
and single stamps from it
Miniature sheet Retail booklet
First Day Cover
Set of 5 Stamp Cards
Presentation Pack